The Wisconsin men’s soccer team (2-2-0) will face arguably their toughest competition of the season when they head into the “Corn Belt” to face the No. 16 Creighton Blue Jays on Friday and a talented Drake Bulldog squad on Sunday.

Creighton presents Wisconsin with their highest-ranked opponent thus far. The Blue Jays (3-1-0) are coming off of a weekend of mixed results after beating then No. 6-ranked UCLA by a score of 3-2 before falling to No. 18 Washington 2-1.

A year ago Creighton won the Missouri Valley Conference with a 12-6-4 record, and despite losing nine seniors, the Blue Jays return a solid core of players. Headlining the group is junior defender Matt Wieland, who as a sophomore was named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.

Junior midfielder Vince Odorisio, with five points on the year, leads a balanced Blue Jay offensive attack with a plethora of weapons. Highly-touted freshman midfielder Joan Carvajal has already made a splash in Omaha, posting three assists in his first four collegiate matches. Creighton also possesses two talented forwards in senior Julian Nash and junior Brian Biggerstaff. Nash has matched Odorisio’s team lead with five points of his own, while Biggerstaff has tallied two goals on the year.

“They’re obviously going to be a very talented and skillful, creative, attacking type of team, probably not too different from what we saw in Tulsa,” Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “For us, we need to concentrate on coming in with the right attitude, the right mentality, and the right approach. I thought we did that on Sunday (against Tulsa) far better than we did on Saturday (against Penn), and as a result, we saw some of the benefits of that. So, we have to come in, and they have a great tradition there, but we’re playing the 11 guys on the other side of the line. We’re not playing the last 10 years of players. It’s going to be a good test for us, I know the guys are very excited, and equally as much with the opportunity to play Drake, who’s off to a great start this season as well.”

Drake (3-1-0) is coming off of its first lost of the season after falling 3-2 at Western Illinois Tuesday. In 2003, the Bulldogs posted a 10-6-3 and they return 10 starters from that team. Senior forward Matt Nickell leads the team with four goals and one assist for nine points. The Waukee, Iowa, native, who set school single season records last year in every offensive category, was first-team all-Missouri Valley Conference and an all-Midwest region selection a year ago.

Nickell, however, is not a one-man show on offense, with juniors Jess Richey, Ryan Samuelson and Chris Hamburger all providing production in the attacking half.

Drake’s weakness may be on defense, where senior Adam Zenor heads a somewhat inexperienced backline. The Bulldogs also do not have a clear cut starting goalkeeper, as freshmen Justin Howell and Matt Meszaros have both seen time in the net.

“I think they gave up three goals this past weekend (at the University of Missouri-Kansas City),” Rohrman said. “Prior to this weekend they’d done pretty well defensively, in terms of not giving up a lot of goals. I think they’re a team that we need to find out what their weakness is. I know they’re a little bit young in the back, maybe a little less experienced, so that should play to our favor. Certainly with Jed (Hohlbein) and Nick (Van Sicklen) being a little more experienced.”

Wisconsin defender Aaron Hohlbein’s health will once again be a concern for the Badgers going into the road trip. Hohlbein is still recovering from a leg injury he suffered against Dayton Sept. 5, though he did play some in last Sunday’s win over Tulsa in Milwaukee.

After splitting games in the first two weekends of the season, Wisconsin is looking for victories on both Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not approaching it to split,” Rohrman said. “I think the team feels we let one, maybe two get away the last couple of weekends, in terms of the performance that we’ve had. I think we learned that if we go out with the right approach, like we did on Sunday (against Tulsa), we can compete with anyone. That’s got to be our approach this weekend, and certainly we’re going into it feeling like we can come back with two wins.”